Agenda item - Human Resources & Organisational Development Annual Report

Report of the Executive Director, Finance & Resources

1)           That the Committee note the annual report of activity, assurance and business plan priorities from the Human Resources & Organisational Development (HROD) Service.

15.1      The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director, Finance & Resources that set out the annual report of the Human Resources & Organisational Development (HROD) service highlighting activity, assurance and business plan priorities.

15.2      Diane Bushell noted that there had been a change in auditing approach from a 2 year Team Safety audit programme to focussing on themed audits and completion of self-assessment checklists and asked for assurance that this change in approach was effective. In addition, Diane asked what the new approaches to risk management for service redesigns were and noted that training courses on contract management had the lowest attendance which was of concern given the council’s recent poor performance in the area.

15.3      The Head of Health & Safety stated that change in audit approach was not a full replacement and targeted audits had continued. The HROD team analysed and used the data gathered from self-assessments to inform deep dive activity as well as using the Data-Insight tool. New approaches to risk management for service redesign were variable. The council had lost key skills as a result of organisation changes and there was now a clearer understanding of the skills required and how to build those into the organisation again. The Head of Health & Safety noted that the specific training course on contractors specifically related to management of contractors in an H&S context rather than from a financial perspective.

15.4      Referring to page 146 of the agenda, Councillor Taylor asked if there was an estimate cost implication to the council for staff sickness. Furthermore, Councillor Taylor noted that the council employed 600 casual workers, a figure that appeared very high.

15.5      The Executive Director, Finance & Resources answered that staff sickness was approximately 4% of a monthly payroll budget of £5-6m although there were a number of issues that contributed to staff sickness. The Executive Director, Finance & Resources added that he was unclear whether the figure for casual workers was high or not compared to other local authorities and would clarify after the meeting.

15.6      Councillor Sykes noted that there had been an extraordinary reduction in liability claims over the past five years and asked whether that was due to changes to legislation or action undertaken by the council. Furthermore, Councillor Sykes noted that there had been an increase of 20% in accidents/incidents even though there had been reductions to workforce numbers.

15.7      The Head of Health & Safety stated that information on liability claims had been included in the report for the first time in this version and the reduction related to improved working with insurance partners and improvements to evidence records.

15.8      Councillor Greenbaum noted the increase in staff appointed to fixed-term contracts and asked whether that would become established as policy going forward.

15.9      The Executive Director, Finance & Resources stated that no policy on contract types would be sought and the increase was likely to be due to circumstances and business need. The Executive Director, Finance & Resources highlighted short-term, specialist ICT projects as the type of scenario where fixed-term contracts would be issued.

15.10   RESOLVED- That the Committee note the annual report of activity, assurance and business plan priorities from the Human Resources & Organisational Development (HROD) Service.